17 Days Exploring Southeast Asia: Bangkok, Thailand

The Grand Palace!

Hi everyone! This is my third post about my winter vacation travels throughout Southeast Asia. My first entry was about Hong Kong, and my previous entry was about Chiang Mai, Thailand! Welcome back to my adventures.

The most delicious thing I've ever tasted

After spending nearly a week in Chiang Mai, Emily, Zoe, and I headed off for Bangkok. Rather than riding a bumpy, stomach-churning bus ride for an entire day, we booked a 45-minute flight across the country. Chiang Mai is in northern Thailand, whereas Bangkok is located in southern Thailand. These two cities are SO different from each other! While Chiang Mai was a relaxing, beachy, low key city, Bangkok is a hustle-and-bustle, crowded city. We spent three days in Bangkok which was plentiful time for us to explore on the last leg of our trip.

On day one in Bangkok, we settled into our hostel, and had a difficult time finding some food (surprisingly in such a big city!). We ended up going to a local restaurant where the manager spoke no English and the menu wasn't much help either. Luckily the guy just gave us whatever he recommended, which was absolutely delicious! After lunch, we wandered around and we discovered this magical dessert restaurant called Milk Plus. In Milk Plus, everything is dairy-related (as you can imagine). There are machines mixing all different flavors of milk, such as Kiwi, Cantaloupe, Blueberry, Pomegranate, and more flavored types of milk. OH MY GOD. I have never tasted dairy products that were as delicious as Milk Plus. They also sell amazing buttery goodness toast and different consistencies of milkshakes and regular milk. We made the trip to Milk Plus every single day that we were in Bangkok. I've checked online, and Milk Plus only seems to exist in Thailand.

The best motto I've ever read

Reclining Buddha

While in Bangkok, we mostly traveled to large temples and palaces. One day we saw this HUGE Buddha called "Reclining Buddha". He is literally stretched out across the entire room and reclining (laying down). It claims to be made of gold, but I am not sure if this is entirely true. We also visited the Grand Palace, which has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) since 1782. The king, his court and his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. The present monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), currently resides at Chitralada Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. It was an AMAZING palace. We could have stayed there all day because it was so humungous. It was so interesting for me to learn about the Buddhist culture in Thailand, as I become more knowledgable about Buddhism in general and how it differs between countries in Southeast Asia.

A local person's home

Floating Market

On our last day in Bangkok, we traveled to a traditional floating market - where people sell their products from their boats along a river. In order to purchase the products, the buyer must also ride in a boat. Any time you wish to stop and buy something, you just row on over and make a trade! It was a very interesting experience - super cool and unique. Our tour guide also took us on a speed boat where we got to ride along the river and see the local people's homes, who are built on the water (but built upon higher ledges to support them). After we visited the floating market, we went to a huge shopping mall, binged on too much delicious food, and then crashed. To be honest, we were pretty worn out by the time we made it to Bangkok, so this stop was a good resting destination before we hit the road again.

Unfortunately, this post is a bit short. But like my exhaustion from the trip, I am also feeling some exhaustion of writing a bunch lately. Stayed tuned for my next post - I will be updating about my mom and dad's visit to Korea! Until next time! :)